Black Static

The anthology Cone Zero (Megazanthus Press paperback, 288pp, £10) is another one of those titles that got away from me. I only recently finished reading the book, and unfortunately it’s now too long since the publication last July or thereabouts, for me to consider it still eligible for a review in Black Static.

By way of compensating for this oversight, I thought I would give the book a write up here and, as it’s (allegedly) edited and published by the incorrigibly iconoclastic Des Lewis, I’ve decided to attempt something different by way of a review.  Using the notes I made on the stories as I read the book, I’ve written a haiku for each of them. And then, just to be even more avant garde and all that, I’ve mixed up the running order, so you have to determine for yourself which story the haiku is about, a methodology that has the advantage of allowing the writers to assume that all the positive comments are about their work and any negative ones about somebody else.

It shouldn’t need saying, but just in case, please note that this is just a bit of fun, and not intended to be taken as a serious critical assessment of Cone Zero (if you want one of those, then I’ve linked to a couple at the foot of the page). Nor is it intended to be an example of how to write haiku (perish the thought), a form which I am sure is far more complex than my risible efforts allow.

Anyway, Cone Zero, the haiku review:-

 

art of the absurd

pokes fun at aesthetic void

with wit and panache

 

couple in new home

things don't go as planned for them

story that intrigues

 

druggie friends adrift

in story going nowhere

ho hum and then some

 

healing forbidden

in a carry on type world

this one is puzzling

 

longest and the best

chock full of fun and a treat

from first word to last

 

man sculpts world from ice

come on in as prose is fine

more style than substance

 

man seeks truth from art

ligottiesque imagery

in unsettling tale

 

sixty minute death

by own hand, made me want to

phone samaritans

 

square peg in round hole

men question reality

nowt new under sun

 

stuntman becomes star

world accommodates the change

in clever story

 

substantial tale that

develops at its own pace

with telling detail

 

third with same name

meeting in ruins, maybe

i didn't have a clue

 

touching piece with an

undercurrent of pure horror

what's lost will stay lost

 

wife is different

hints of doom and gloom abound

but premise is all